


Meliora

by PopiaSimp



Category: Ghost (Sweden Band)
Genre: Aftermath of Torture, Blood, Blood and Gore, Child Abuse, Child Neglect, Childhood Trauma, Drowning, Gen, III has bad coping mechanisms, Injury, Nonbinary Papa III, Past Abuse, Past Child Abuse, Past Torture, Torture, gender neutral reader
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2021-02-18
Updated: 2021-02-22
Packaged: 2021-03-13 08:20:21
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 5,914
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29523534
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PopiaSimp/pseuds/PopiaSimp
Summary: Papa III ran off stage after sounding choked up at the end of the ritual. As their personal stagehand, you had to go check on them, but you didn't expect what you found.
Kudos: 13





	1. Cirice

**Author's Note:**

> TW: CHILD ABUSE, NEGLECT, blood, drowning, bad coping mechanisms, internalizing trauma  
> Papa iii is nonbinary, bite me
> 
> Papa iii and reader talk about pain and trauma after they see iii crying after a ritual

You’d taken on the role of Terzo’s personal stagehand a few weeks ago, and through this tour, it seemed like it was going pretty well! They were lively, they seemed so happy to be bringing the word of Satan to the people. But when you’d gone to check on them after the Ghouls hadn’t seen them since they walked off stage, you heard muffled, but _heavy_ sobs coming from their dressing room.

You knocked on the door and opened it, leaning your head in just enough to see them throw the pillow they’d been clinging to to the other side of the room and scrub at their paintless face. “Terzo? Are you alright in here?”  
  
“I’m fine.” they reply immediately, voice broken and stuffy. You know them better than that by now, at least.. You think you do. You’d learned a lot about them in the last few weeks. You two had… a surprising amount in common.

“You’re not. You’re crying.” you say, slipping into the dressing room fully. They won’t turn to face you, but you can see the tears still falling in the mirror of the vanity they were sat in front of. 

They’re not even trying to hide it anymore… you aren’t sure you’ve ever seen this side of them, and it breaks your heart. The last song they’d sung was Cirice, it was _their_ song… why were they so upset?   
  
They don’t say anything for a moment, not until you’d come to pull a chair up beside them. Their white eye turns to glance at you, but they don’t make full eye contact. “Crying is something everyone does, from time to time. I got too worked up over the ritual.” they say, and it’s clear it’s a lie.

“Terzo. What’s the matter? You can tell me, I won’t tell anyone else.. We’re friends, right?” You watch their expression shift, hands coming up to grip at their hair as their jaw _clenches._ A strained groan leaves them before their hands drop, and their head falls into them.   
  
It’s silent, for a moment, and your concern only grows before they finally look at you, eyes red from sobbing, and.. There’s even little red splotches forming under them from broken blood vessels. Every sight you’re getting right now breaks your heart further. 

“E-Everything I’ve t-told you about myself.. h-has been a l-lie…” they whimper, and sure, that hurts you, but you don’t get a chance to ask why before they’re explaining. “I l-lie to _everyone,_ I j-just… I tell them we have the same i-interests so they l-like me, and they d-don’t… don’t start to h-hate me for n-not understanding them, o-or…”

They trail off, and you bring a hand out to rest on their shoulder. Terzo flinches **_VIOLENTLY_ ** in response, nearly falling off of their chair. You gasp, and immediately murmur “I’m sorry! I’m so sorry, I…”

All the Antipope does is bury their head in their hands and start crying harder again, a few deep sobs wracking their body before they suck in a breath, and in a split second, they scrub their eyes, clearing their throat and looking at you again. They were.. done crying, just like that?? That… couldn’t be healthy…

“Listen, please.. I… I am fine. Just… leave me alone, okay? I had a moment, I was overtaken by the crowd’s emotions… empathy is crazy.” they say, but their tone isn’t convincing you. Nothing would convince you to leave right now.  
  
“I’m not leaving.” you reply immediately, and the look of instant defeat on Terzo’s face is.. a bit surprising, but you were expecting them to try and hold out longer. 

After a low sigh, they look over you and mumble “You are the only reason I have had… any strength, as of late… I matched your personality s-so… so we would get along… I d-don’t know why I do it, b-but… it has always happened...” 

That was… a compliment you hadn’t expected, but you tilt your head, thinking for a second… you think of the words of the song they’d been singing, and you know your question will sound _so_ off topic, but you ask it anyways. “What is Cirice about?”

They look at you for a moment, giving a laugh that barely registered as a sound. “It is about my childhood… about a perspective on it, from myself when I wrote it.” 

* * *

**_I feel your presence amongst us. You cannot hide in the darkness._ **

_“You must commune with your Lord! To deny His will is to deny your father his wishes!” Sister Imperator screeched to the child, holding him by one wrist above a vat filled with something that_ **_reeked_ ** _, something thick and black in the light of the flickering candles surrounding it._

 _“Mama, please! I don’t wanna!! I’m scared!” the child screamed, and a loud_ **_smack_ ** _sounded throughout the room._

_“I AM NOT YOUR MOTHER!” Imperator howled, releasing her grip and letting the child fall into the vat. He fell within the sticky liquid, screaming as he did. He attempted to surface to sputter out the fluids that entered his mouth, but there was a hand in his hair, holding him within the vat as he fought, scratching, and screaming under her grip._

_The only sound was splashing for nearly a minute, and eventually, a voice called “Bring him up, Sister.”_

_She did not respond, and the sloshing under her grip started to falter._

_“SISTER.”_

_A tiny hand broke the surface of the vat to weakly claw at the hand on the child’s head, though as it sank within once again, a larger hand snatched the wrist of Imperator and ripped it off, reaching within the vat to pull the child out. It took a heavy hit to his back to get him to cough up the contents of his lungs, and the other voice said “Are you so quick to murder my son?! To drown him at his baptism?!”_

_“If you had simply stayed faithful, perhaps I wouldn’t be stuck caring for a child I despise!” she hisses, watching the man before her wipe the face of the child clean. He started to cry, gasping as he was wiped clean by his father._

_“P-Papa--” he whimpered, and was shushed by the elder man. “I know, my son. You’re safe now, si? Do you feel our Lord’s presence?”_

_The child spat up a thick… blob, his crying only continuing as his father looked over it. “Very good, my son. You’ve become one with our Lord.”_

_Being the cunt she was, Imperator flicked the lights on as she left, hearing a_ **_wail_ ** _as she left. The little brat had always been petrified of blood… and he’d just been bathed in it._

* * *

**_I know your soul is not tainted. Even though you’ve been told so._ **

_“His baptism did not do enough! He must be taught in the ways we once were!” Imperator hissed, watching as her ex husband rubbed at his eyes._

_“Sister, please. You must stop taking your hatred of me out on him.” he pleads, but he flinches as she raises a hand to him._

_“He deserves his punishments for not taking our Lord as he should have! You should have let Him save him! But you_ **_had_ ** _to save your precious bastard child, Nihil!” she snaps, and the Antipope groans._

 _“He is just a_ **_child_ ** _, Sister. He doesn’t know why you hate him! He sees his brothers call you mother, but you deny him this! He wants a relationship with you as they had!” Nihil shouts._

 _“I AM NOT HIS MOTHER! Perhaps if you let that_ **_whore_ ** _keep him, he would have a mother!”_

_“I was not letting a random stranger raise my son! After she almost died in childbirth, she didn’t want him anyway!”_

_“THESE ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF SLEEPING WITH PEOPLE YOU BARELY KNOW! IF YOU WANT HIM TREATED NICELY,_ **_SEND HIM SOMEWHERE THAT WILL DO SO._ ** _”_

_He wasn’t going to fight her anymore. He couldn’t stand up to her, in his already failing health, and he wasn’t going to abandon his son… he could only hope the youngest of his three would be alright, after she was done with him…_

_He left, and Sister went to find the bastard child in question, pulling him from his bedroom by his hair and going along with her daily routine of whipping and beating him as he did his chores, sobbing the entire time. The harder he cried, the harder he was beaten, and eventually.. He learned not to cry._

_The day she heard that, was the day she claimed his soul had been cleansed properly._

* * *

**_A candle casting a faint glow. You and I see eye to eye._ **

_His tenth birthday had come and gone, and it was usually a time of awakening for those in their church. One where powers would come, his magic would manifest. But it hadn’t, and while his father claimed that it comes late in some, Sister Imperator said it was because he still wasn’t pure enough._

_She dragged him by his hair to the altar and told him to strip. He knelt on the altar before the statue of Baphomet, naked as the day he was born. His body was scarred from the abuse he’d been through, the marks ranging from lighter than his skin tone, to a deep purple, shown in the candles circling him._

_“Chant.” she commands, and the child does as he’s instructed, hands pushed together in front of his chest as he started to pray before the statue. “LOUDER.” she hisses, and the_ **_crack_ ** _of a whip echoes through the room._

_He doesn’t scream, but his voice falters._

_The flames on the candles grow, flickering rapidly as he prays louder, and louder, until he feels his knees lift off the marble floor. He floats into the air, the eyes of the statue starting to glow as Sister shouts “Yes! For once, you’re doing something CORRECTLY!”_

_Even the candles start to lift off the ground, the child’s voice wavering as he feels the dark energy around him start to swirl. The black candles circle around the statue and the child, starting to move faster and faster as the flames grew higher and higher._

_The chant pauses as a thick black smog starts encircling the child. It whips the flames into it as well, and from the orb of flame and smoke, screams ring out. Pained, scared begs echo, and Sister Imperator hisses “STOP YOUR PATHETIC WHIMPERING AND ACCEPT YOUR LORD!”_

_A_ **_deep_ ** _cry sounds from the orb before the smog enters the child’s body, and the flames whip his skin as he falls back to the floor, writhing in pain as burns covered his body. Sister Imperator rolls her eyes, snarling “If you can’t handle the mark of your Lord, you’ll never be a Papa one day. Not that you deserve it.”_

* * *

**_Now there is nothing between us. From now our merge is eternal._ **

_The burns didn’t ruin his skin as he thought they would. But his muscles felt like they were on fire for_ **_weeks_ ** _. He had nightmares of his baptism, of his abuse, and the whole time, he heard whispers from a demonic voice._

_‘What she did to you will only make you stronger, my son.’_

_‘Every scar is a channel I can use to provide you with more power.’_

_‘Don’t you feel me writhing through your body? The burning in your muscles is my strength, passing through to you.’_

_‘I will be with you always, my son. We are one.’_

_“Please… p-please… make it stop… it hurts…” he begged, his body spasming at the searing deep under his skin._

_“I cannot help you, Aurelio… I am so sorry I let her do this to you…” his father whispered, pressing a pained kiss to his forehead. It only made more tears fall from his eyes, from_ **_both_ ** _of their eyes. He said a prayer over his son, and eventually, his brothers joined in as well._

 _“Papa, why does mama hate Aurelio so much?”_ _  
_ _“Because she is not his mother… he has a different mother.”_ _  
_ _“Papa, why does he have another mother? Did you not love mother enough?”_ _  
_ _“Of course I did… but I was young, and wreckless, and he is paying for my sins.”_ _  
_ _“I thought Lucifer loved our sins, Papa.”_ _  
_ _“He does… but your mama does not.”_

_He led his two elder children, one by only three months, away from their brother, having to fight himself, and them, to leave the room. They wouldn’t be able to help him… they never would._

* * *

**_Can’t you see that you’re lost? Can’t you see that you’re lost, without me?_ **

_He had finally learned to sever the ties that kept him bound to his abuse… he took a new name, he…_

_Whoever was in the mirror was not the boy born as Aurelio Emeritus._

_Aurelio Emeritus had long hair, that made his father proud._

_They cut it off, it was barely enough to grip anymore._

_Aurelio Emeritus had his father’s bright green eyes, both shining brightly in the morning sun._

_They had one dull green, and one slashed and scarred white._

_Aurelio Emeritus was a young man who had been tortured and tormented by his brothers’ mother. He was bound to servitude by her, and suffered every day of his existence._

_The_ **_thing_ ** _in the mirror was what was left._

_A husk. Aurelio’s body, but what was inside was an entity._

_They had no name… they had no pain. Pain was for Aurelio… but this third Emeritus brother…_

_Terzo…_

_...Terzo was the only thing left, now. Without Aurelio, all Terzo had was their service to the church. After decades, it was time to take their place as Papa…_

_They had to force the Ghouls at the ceremony to use the name they felt was theirs, now… but they were crowned Papa Emeritus III either way… but it did not fix what was missing._

_Nothing was going to bring Aurelio back. And they would have to learn to live without him._

* * *

**_I can feel the thunder that’s breaking in your heart. I can see through the scars inside you._ **

_They felt it on stage. They knew the fans heard it. The way they started to break singing this song. The way they choked up during the last lines. And the way that they practically ran off stage when the final bow was over._

_Every memory that they’d repressed to try and write this fucking song came rushing back like a freight train._

_The pain of the blood filling their lungs, and the fear they felt, trying to claw at the hand holding them under the cold sludge._

_The crack of the whip as the tears slid down their face, the tail breaking the skin of their bare back as they scrubbed their own blood off the floor with the dirt._

_The searing pain of the fires burning into their muscles, day after day, week after week, until the day they felt like a burnt out coal, lying useless and liable to break in bed._

_The day they stopped crying, instead bottling everything up so it couldn’t be used against them ever again._

_The day that Aurelio died._

_And the day Terzo came to be in his place._

* * *

You had started crying as soon as it had gotten bad, but it only got **_worse_ ** the longer it went on. You had always wondered why they were always in long sleeves, even in the summer performances, it was long sleeves, multiple layers, or the regalia… this wasn’t the first time you’d seen their face without the paint, but you’d never seen it so… you didn’t even know what to call it.

It looked like they’d accepted being so broken ages ago, but something about it still hurt. There was still a part of that chameleon personality that knew how much it hurt to be like this. And as they looked over you, silent tears streaming down their face, they reached out a hand to wipe yours away.

“You don’t need to cry for me…” they say, although it seems like that’s the first time they’ve ever said those words, the way it sounds so foreign coming from them.

“S-Someone has to…” you reply, and as you scrub at your eyes, you see something come over Terzo’s face. They don’t speak, so you do instead. “The things you went through are something that no one deserves… and I’m so, so sorry that you ever had to go through that… you deserved so much better out of life, and… you’re so strong, for having made it through all that…”

They just… stare at you, for a moment. You can see the gears turning in their head, and it becomes more and more apparent that you’ve been the only person to see this side of them. You doubt even the Ghouls have. It takes you a moment, but you ask “Have you ever… talked to _anyone_ about this? A therapist, or--”   
  
“No.” they interrupt, and they seem surprised by the outburst, moreso than you were. “I… I never… had the time to… the rituals are my stress relief, I… I put everything into them…” they murmur afterwards, running a hand through their hair.   
  
“Terzo… You need to try and talk to someone about this, preferably a professional… I can only help you so much, but there are ways you can learn to move past all of that… you could find yourself.” Your eyes never leave them, and eventually, they look back to you, swallowing thickly and staying silent. You reach a hand out slowly, placing it on the edge of the vanity. “Promise me you’ll try after this tour?”   
  
They hesitate, gaze flicking between your hand, and your face, before they sigh and put one of theirs on top of yours, squeezing it weakly. “Okay… I… I’ll try.”

You let out a sigh of relief, flipping your hand over under theirs and squeezing it back. “Thank you, Terzo.”

After a moment of silence, they laugh, and mutter “Just because you have seen me cry, doesn’t mean you get to call me by my name.”

You snort and roll your eyes, pulling your hand back once they pulled theirs back. “My apologies, Papa.”


	2. Deus In Absentia

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Terzo has a therapy session. It's... a lot of recounting what happened in the past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So i've had major brainrot all day so I can't tell you if this is good or not just know I'm not as proud of it as I am of the first one so... yeah.. also i changed terzo's deadname, fight me
> 
> CW for poisoning, blood mentions, death mentions, suicidal actions, suicide mentions

**_Ain’t this your time of need? You’re turning to the light._ **

After the tour had ended, you’d been tasked with finding a good therapist for Terzo. There were a few hanging around the abbey, whether they were hired help or they’d abandoned their careers to join the church... But they’d asked you to look  _ outside _ of their ranks, so you spent the first few days of their recovery week to find one who had experience in quite a few areas you knew the Antipope needed to work on. 

The only thing you didn’t understand was that they wanted you to sit in on their session, but you assumed it was for moral support… you were sat on one of the sofas in the middle of Terzo’s office, and they were off to your side, not too close, but not on the opposite couch. You were just… waiting, until a knock sounded on the door.   
  
“Goodness, I apologize. I had one of your, um… helpers, guide me up here, but they left me after I got to this floor. So.” he says, walking up and resting his hands on the back of the other couch. “Which one of you is A--”   
  
“Terzo.” the Antipope says before he can finish more than just the sound of the A from the word that was about to leave his mouth. “My name is Terzo.”   
  
The therapist pauses, digging into his bag for his clipboard, and he grimaces, sighing “I apologize, my secretary wrote these names in the wrong order… I hope that doesn’t indicate a bad start to our time.” He moves around the couch and sits down, looking between the two of you. “Is this a joint session? Couple’s therapy?”   
  
Terzo makes a face, not one of any true negativity, but one that says  _ ‘Dude I hope I wouldn’t be sitting this far away from my partner if this was couple’s therapy.’ _

“I’m just here for moral support.” you reply, and the therapist nods. 

He flips through some papers, looking over what little was in there. “So what I see from what little we have is that there’s going to be a lot to work with. Can you tell me more about what you’re dealing with?”   
  
Terzo doesn’t meet his gaze as he looks up, eyes on some part of the other couch, just trying to go through what they would need to talk about for a moment. The room is silent until they shift, stating “I… was abused, by my father’s ex-wife throughout my childhood, up until… until a few years ago, when she had more important things to focus on. She… She stayed to care for her own children, and to tend to the duties of our church… she had a lovely bond with  _ her _ sons, but to me, she was nothing but cruel… taking out her hatred of my father on me. She nearly killed me, dozens of times, from when I was a newborn until…” They pause, a hand coming to rub at their forehead as they try to remember.   
  
“Her last attempt was… only a few years ago, after having stopped once I got older… She… did not want me to be able to take her younger son’s title…” They finally look up to the therapist, just as he looks down to start writing something down.    
  


* * *

  
  
**_You’re so goddamn frail. Failing for a change._ **

_ Aurelio had finally had some peace in his life. Imperator had been off his back since he’d turned twenty, and the following years had passed so smoothly. He proved his worth within the church, making his father proud as best as he could. But after his brother’s fiancée had passed, he’d taken such a turn for the worse. Aurelio had found him after his… attempt… and they worked together to try and get him back on his feet.  _

_ He’d done well for a few months! Incredibly so. Aurelio didn’t know what he was doing, all he knew was that he’d written a whole album, and had… started collecting portraits, in her memory, he claimed. They always spoke about how proud they were of each other, but one day, he was called to his brother’s office, and he slipped into the door, asking “Fratello? Is everything okay?” _

_ He was met with a sigh, and the younger sat down across his brother’s desk as he looked over him, trying to gauge what was wrong. Eventually, the older clears his throat, stating “I am going to be retiring from my position earlier than intended. I cannot keep doing this… I am not as okay as I have said, and this is not helping me. The music, the masses, even the duties I hold around the church are becoming too much for me to bear… you will be taking my place, fratello. I know you will do us proud.” _

_ Aurelio knew better than to fight that, and he  _ **_was_ ** _ supposed to be the next Antipope, but he wasn’t expecting it for another few years… not that he had much time to fight anyways. A Ghoul knocked on the door and leaned in, stating “Papa-- and Aurelio. Sister Imperator has called you for dinner.” _

_ The two brothers made their way down to the kitchens, and, as expected, Imperator greets  _ **_her_ ** _ son with a hug and a quick conversation before he sits. Aurelio expects, and gets, nothing of the sort, simply sitting down between his half brothers as their father sits on the opposite side. They were served dinner and ate as a family, but not long after, Aurelio started to feel… off. _

_ Within hours, he was vomiting blood,  _ **_screaming_ ** _ in pain, and the only reason he lived through the first night was thanks to the nursing staff that Nihil had needed as his health fell further and further. Every night after that was a miracle, and no amount of praying over him was helping. Nothing the nursing staff was doing could manage to do anything but keep him alive. He suffered, in agonizing pain, for  _ **_weeks_ ** _. _

_ One night, near the end of his recovery, he had finally,  _ **_finally_ ** _ been able to sleep, but… he was woken up by the sound of his door opening. He couldn’t do much, nearly paralyzed from how tired he was, but he hears the clicking of heels on the floor and knows immediately who it is. _

_ “How you lived through that is a fucking mystery. You should have died that first night, but as always, you are a persistent thorn in my side at all times. You will disgrace this church as Papa, Aurelio.” Imperator hisses, looking down at the ‘sleeping’ bastard child. “I should slit your throat right here, right now. Nothing you will ever do will amount to  _ **_my_ ** _ children… you will fail this church as you have failed everything else.” _

_ She leaves after a moment spent contemplating her options, with no clue that the other had heard her words… he… he couldn’t… _

* * *

**_The world is on fire, and you are here to stay and burn with me. A funeral pyre, and we are here to revel forevermore._ **

_ They were crowned. In the time it had taken them to recover fully from their attempted assassination, they had abandoned all hope of ever feeling like the man they once were. They spent the week after their coronation gathering up everything  _ **_he_ ** _ had left behind. Every scrap of clothing, every childhood relic and memory… _

_ Their brothers’ Fire Ghoul was called, the cartoon devil knockoff looking demon standing at the new Antipope’s side as they pointed a clawed glove to the large pile of boxes before them. “Set it on fire.” they order, and the Ghoul hesitates. _

_ “Your Unholiness, this is everything you’ve grown up with. Don’t you want to--” _

_ “These belongings are not  _ **_mine_ ** _. They are  _ **_his_ ** _ , and I do not want them in my presence.” they interrupt, and their mismatched gaze lands on the Ghoul to their side. “Now do as I say before I summon a Fire Ghoul who will.” _

_ Alpha meets the new Papa’s glare for a moment before he nods and flicks an ember from his hand out onto the stack of boxes. The dry cardboard catches fire immediately, and it spreads through the other boxes until nothing but a ten foot flame stands before them. Alpha was shooed off, and told to send out Beta, in case anything bad were to happen. _

_ By the time the Water Ghoul came out, the Antipope was barely a foot away from the flames. Beta reaches forward and snatches them by the back of their, thankfully temporary, chasuble, pulling them back at a safe distance. They didn’t react, at least not for a moment. _

_ “Terzo. This is unlike you.” Beta says, and he watches as the now empty eyes of the shorter turn to look up at him.  _

_ “Nothing is ‘like me’, Beta. I  _ **_am_ ** _ nothing. I was born from nothing, I will die the same. What is keeping me from dying with the child so beloved by Papa, and so hated by Imperator?” they ask, tears starting to stream down their face that they were entirely unaware of. Something had broken, watching the memories of someone else’s childhood go up in smoke, and Beta knew better than to ask. _

_ He simply pulls the Antipope into a hug that lasts until there is nothing but ash left of everything they had just burned. Once it had burned out, he gently pulled the other off of himself, looking down and murmuring “Go inside, please. I’ll be in in a moment.”  _

_ Terzo walks off like a zombie, back inside the abbey. _

_ And Beta turns, holding a hand out to the lingering embers. They, and the area around them, are doused with water, which… in the process, jostled the pile enough to reveal one heavily singed object. The Water Ghoul knelt down to pull it from the charred remains, and saw that it was a toy he knew had been favored by the youngest Emeritus for years… _

_ He sighs as he stands, setting it back down and burying it with a pained breath of “Goodbye, Aurelio… I am sorry that no one could save you.” _

* * *

**_Oh you are looking good. Payback in disgrace._ **

_ The temporary chasuble had to be disposed of after it was ruined in the display Terzo had put on, one they didn’t seem to remember. It was only a week of having to deal with being snipped at by clothing Ghouls until their permanent regalia was finished.  _

_ They had called Nihil to see them in their glory, if he could still see at all… he assured them he could, and they met in the chapel, the elder Papa sat against the altar with his oxygen tank at his side. He squints slightly as his youngest child comes in, though that lets up as they get closer. _

_ Black intricate lace lined their chasuble, the inside lined with a deep purple silk, glinting in the sunlight streaming through the windows as they walked. The edges of the robes underneath were lace-like as well, and a brilliant gold. Grucifixes upon grucifixes lined the edges, also gold in color. Nihil watched his child turn, arms out to either side, and a grin came to his face. This was the most he’d seen them seeming proud, and happy, in ages… _

_ “You look powerful, my child.” he says, and he can catch the smile on Terzo’s face thanks to the paint lines shifting.  _

_ “Thank you, Papa.” they reply, and Nihil lifts a hand, chuckling weakly.  _

_ “You are the true Papa now… I know you will do our family proud.” he says, and Terzo steps closer, their footsteps hiding the clicking of Imperator’s heels behind them. Terzo puts their hands on their father’s shoulders, leaning in to press a kiss to his forehead.  _

_ “I hope to live up to your legacy, Papa. You, and my brothers. I will do you three proud.” they state, rather loudly, at that. Nihil was about to joke that he wasn’t deaf when Terzo turns, meeting the eyes of Imperator that were boring into their back.  _

_ They share a silent glare before Terzo turns to help Nihil stand, and step off of the altar. The new Antipope helps the eldest back towards the door, but stops just in front of Imperator, waiting until Nihil had left to smirk at her.  _

_ “You are lucky my own heart is not as black as yours.” they spit, and she bares her teeth like the animal she truly is. She doesn’t get a chance to respond before they leave. _

* * *

**_And you are doing fine worshiping your Lord._ **

_ Sure, the sermons were moving. The music was coming along nicely… but she could not work through her burning hatred for the bastard Antipope. After yet another snark filled remark, the third so far today, Imperator had had enough. _

_ “Those robes do nothing to put you above me. You cannot speak to me in such a manner, Aurelio.” she snarls, but that brings a deep rumble from Terzo. It catches her off guard, and she’s frozen as they get up into her face. _

_ “Aurelio died to your poisoning, **wretch**. I am your Papa, and you are to treat me with the  _ **_respect I deserve_ ** _.” Something flares in their eyes, specifically, the scarred white one. Its pupil dilates to nearly fully block out their iris at their last words, settling back down in the silence after them. The energy coming off of Terzo is thick, and  _ **_powerful_ ** _. _

_ The smirk on their face grows at Imperator’s silence, and they reach a clawed, gloved finger out to trail along her face. “What is the matter, Imperator? Am I no longer the  _ **_slave_ ** _ that you ‘raised’?” _ _   
_ _   
_ _ Silence. And the Antipope leans in, their scarred pupil still dilating at their emphasized words. _

_ “Maybe if you wanted to  _ **_keep_ ** _ your subservient Aurelio so badly, you shouldn’t have  _ **_fucking poisoned him_ ** _. What use is a broken servant if you kill him, hm?” _

_ They take their leave after that, leaving Sister Imperator to wonder how they had gotten so fucking  _ **_strong_ ** _ in such a short time in their position… _

_ This wasn’t going to end well. _

* * *

It was a rather long, and emotional therapy session, one that went over the limit that was likely supposed to have been set, but thankfully, he hadn’t had any other appointments. Not like he wouldn’t be paid well for his time.

“It seems that a few of our first sessions will be a lot of venting, but that’s okay. A lot of patients start out like this, and it’s good to get everything out that you need, so I know where I need to start. Should I… prepare for longer sessions?” He looks up from his clipboard and tries not to react too much to the position he finds his patient in; currently snuggled up with you and getting their hair played with. 

They’d moved closer to you throughout the session, and the therapist was at least glad to see them seeking some kind of comfort as they spoke. Their head was on your shoulder, and you had one arm around them while the other toyed with a few loose strands of hair by their forehead.   
  
“Probably… for now, um.. Th-Thank you.” Terzo breathes, following with a long yawn. Seems like they burned out most of their energy for the day through getting all of that out of their system…

“Thank yourself for having the strength to reach out for help. You clearly have a good support system in your friend here, even if it is only one person. One person will always be better than nothing.” the therapist says as he gathers his supplies and stands up. “Take it easy for the rest of the day, okay? I’ll see you again in a week.”

Terzo nods, not making another sound until he’d seen himself out. Once it was just you and them, they yawn again and sigh out “I need to lay down…”    
  
You shift a bit and comment “Well let me help you into bed, sleepyhead.” You push them off for a moment, standing up and pulling them up off the couch. They were practically dead weight, which wasn’t surprising.. They’d gone into so much detail talking about their past…

It takes a minute, but you get them through their office doors and down the hall to their bedroom. They only get  _ heavier _ against you as you wobble over to their bed, plopping them onto it and watching them wriggle up into it. You cover them up with the blankets, and you can tell they have something on their mind, but they don’t say it. You… have a feeling you know what it is, though…

You push yourself up a bit to be able to get onto their abnormally tall bed, sitting on the edge and watching as they snake a hand up out of the blankets to reach towards you. You rest your hand on top of theirs, murmuring “I’m not leaving you. I’m here, Terzo.”   
  
They’re nuzzled pretty far under the covers, but you catch the tiniest bit of a grin as they doze off for a much needed nap.


End file.
